What is Human Centered Design

Explaining Human Centered Design to Your Boss

In the design industry, we hear "human centered design" everyday - and yes, we get it. However, whether we like it or not, we've signed up for change management. We need to teach this new approach to management. When faced with that tasked, here's how we describe human centered design:

The ground that we are working under is moving, and it is moving fast.When the Internet first started, it was incredibly difficult to build technology. There was no open-source movement; it was really hard to find people who could do it; the programming languages were very complex. And by and large, companies could succeed by merely getting their product to market. That was all it took to have success.Because it was technology, they didn't have a human intimate relationship with their customers. Customers became a data point, a KPI -- someone you didn't have to interact with. Think about it -- they called their customers "users." I mean, they aren't drug addicts. Like, these are customers.

Those days have changed. Today alone, ten thousand websites will be created. This week, one thousand apps will be built in the App Store. And now, first to market ain't going to cut it.So today's consumers have greater expectations than what they did five years ago. Your website, your product, your service can't just be usable. Your product, your website, your service can't just have a good looking UI. It doesn't work any more.

"Human-centered design is a philosophy. It is a philosophy that says that the connections that you form between you and your customers and your technology are holistic."

I'm a millennial -- I'm going to say it. You have to have a connection, a human emotional relationship with your customers in order to compete and thrive in today's economy. We call this philosophy, "human-centered design." I almost want to pull the word "design" out of it, because human-centered design isn't post-its. It's not a white-boarding session, although I love doing that, and it's not hiring UX designers. That is not what human-centered design is.

Human-centered design is a philosophy. It is a philosophy that says that the connections that you form between you and your customers and your technology are holistic.My dad rolls his eyes when I tell him this. But this thing is an extension of my life, and that is true. I think Simon Sinek said really well -- people aren't getting "Dell" tattooed on their arms right now. People get "Harley Davidson" tattooed on. They have that enduring commitment with those brands and with those services. This is an extension of my life, and it's almost a spiritual connection that has been forming.So that's the philosophy that we need to adopt, and it is hard to think that way. Because what it requires -- it is an enduring commitment to long-term thinking; it is an enduring commitment to quality, and it is an enduring commitment to delivering emotional experiences. That is really hard for established companies to wrap their minds around.It all starts with finding that emotional connection. You aren't going to do anything unless you figure out what these core values are. These aren't company values; these are the values that you want to resonate with your customers when they're using your product or your service. When you identify these core emotional values, then your strategy, your road maps, your execution, will all fall into place.